This specification relates to identifying neighbors of geo-spatially distributed radio transmitters, for example, cell towers in mobile telecommunications network.
Carriers that rely on radio-frequency signals to transmit information operate networks of radio transmitters. The carriers can identify each radio transmitter by unique identifiers including the geo-spatial coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of the radio transmitter location. The carriers manage information relating to the radio transmitters that they operate, and also, the carriers can share/combine information relating to their respective radio transmitters with other carriers to comply with agreements between carriers, or to conform to various national and international regulations. Accordingly, an international-governed data repository stores information relating to the geo-spatial (latitude and longitude) coordinates of each radio transmitter in operation world-wide. Such a record may include, for example, entries corresponding to over 15 million cell towers operating around the globe.
To satisfy increased demand for an ever-growing number of subscribers who demand and use increasing communication capacity and bandwidth, the carriers can deploy numerous new radio transmitters. Some of the newly deployed radio transmitters can be installed in (usually urban) areas that already have a large spatial density of radio transmitters. Some other of the newly deployed radio transmitters can be installed in sub-urban or rural areas that have a sparse density of radio transmitters, or no radio transmitters at all. While the addition of new radio transmitters is usually prevalent, carriers can also remove radio transmitters from some locations, either because upgrading an obsolete transmitter at the respective location is not possible due to space, power and/or regulation limitations, or because extending or renewing contractual agreements with owners of the respective radio transmitter locations cannot be achieved. The addition or removal of radio transmitters anywhere around the world can be reported to the above-mentioned international-governed data repository. Thus, the record—containing information relating to the geo-spatial (latitude and longitude) coordinates of each radio transmitter in operation world-wide and maintained at the international-governed data repository—can be updated to reflect the addition and/or removal of radio transmitters.
Portions of the foregoing record can be used, for example, to provide location based services (LBS). If the geo-spatial coordinates of three cell towers are provided to a cell phone, the relative strength of the signals from the three cell towers detected by the cell phone can be used for triangulating the instant position of the cell phone. Moreover, the cell phone can continue to track its instant location for as long as the cell phone can detect signals from the three cell towers. Multiple LBS can be provided to a cell phone based on its known geographical location, such as promotions, news and emergency notifications.